​Probiotic products could be labelled with a ranking system in the North America and Europe after a leading researcher called for consumers to be better informed.

In a recent letter published in the journal Nature, Dr. Gregor Reid, Director of the canadian R&D Centre for Probiotics at Lawson Health Research Institute and a scientist at Western University, made the case for requiring probiotic supplements and foods to be tested to determine if they meet a new minimum set of requirements before they can be labelled as a probiotic.

The amount of probiotic research has increased rapidly over the past decade or so. Investigators have sought to answer questions such as how particular bacteria and other microbes interact with the human body, the positive effects on health they may have in supplement form, and which can survive processing, storage and the human digestive process to enable them to convey these benefits.

​Researchers have found that the combination of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) causes more severe intestinal injury as a side-effect than the latter alone due to changes in microbial populations in the gut - referred to as dysbiosis.

It is well established that over-the-counter NSAIDs like ibuprofen can cause injury to the lining of the gut (the gastrointestinal mucosa) and increase gut permeability - so-called "leaky gut". Proton pump inhibitors are used to reduce the secretion of stomach acid and are typically used to treat conditions such as gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Researchers at Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, wanted to look at the combined effects of NSAIDs and PPIs on the integrity and health of the gastrointestinal (GI) mucosa since these drugs are frequently prescribed together. The reason for this being that PPIs may protect the upper GI tract (stomach and duodenum) from the damage caused by the combined effects of NSAIDS and gastric acid - however, the researchers hypothesised that such protection would not extend to the rest of the small intestine and may even cause additional problems.

​A new study has looked at the interactions between "friendly bacteria" commonly found in probiotic supplements and certain micronutrients - with results suggesting many synergistic effects.

Experiments conducted in a laboratory setting found a number of micronutrients were able to enhance the survival and growth of many of the probiotic bacterial strains tested. Probiotics are commonly used to control the growth of less desirable microbes in the gut and it was also found that some micronutrients worked in synergy with the probiotics, exerting their own inhibitory effects on these microbes.

The study was led by Dr. Supriya Yadav from the Agharkar Research Institute, India, and the results are published in the journal Biofactors. The researchers noted the recent trend of probiotic bacteria being added to so called 'functional foods', as well as nutritional supplements, to improve the quantity, digestibility and bioavailability of the nutrients they contain. For example, probiotics have been shown to enhance the bioavailability of the vital minerals, zinc and iron.

Researchers looked at the effects of a milk drink containing the probiotic strains Lactobacillus acidophilus Lafti-L10, L. casei CRL-431, and L. rhamnosus GG and compared these with a placebo drink. They found the probiotic drink affected the expression of hundreds of genes involved in regulating basal metabolism of cells lining the intestine. Some of the effects are considered to be clinically significant and may lead to targeted therapeutic use of specific probiotic strains.

The study was conducted by researchers from NIZO Food Research, Maastricht University, UMC St Radboud and Wageningen UR, led by Professor Michiel Kleerebezem, whose previous work has pushed the boundaries of probiotic knowledge. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

​A new US study has found that the yoghurt drink DanActive which contains the probiotic bacteri Lactobacillus casei reduces the rate of common infections in children of daycare centre age.

The results support those of similar studies conducted on probiotic drinks in Europe but the design of this study was aimed at replicating real-life consumption and daily living of the children involved rather than the more laboratory-based studies that had gone before.

The probiotic yoghurt drink DanActive reduced the rate of common sicknesses such as ear infections, sinusitis, the flu and diarrhea in daycare children, say the researchers led by Daniel Merenstein of Georgetown University School of Medicine (GUSOM) who studied the drink in the largest known probiotic clinical trial to be conducted in the United States. An additional finding, however, showed no reduction in the number of missed school days. The study is published online in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.